Anyone who tracks and follows Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman’s (MBS) path in leading the Kingdom will come to believe that he was brought, or has come, to bring misery to the Saudi people and to burden the Kingdom with debt and moral, social, and political crises.
Since coming to office, he has drawn the Kingdom into political disputes that have damaged the country’s reputation among Muslims and Arabs. He has driven it into an endless circle of wasteful spending on things that neither the state nor the citizens need, and he has taxed and overcharged the populace, while none of the investments or projects he announced have succeeded.
By the end of 2024, the size of the debt portfolio is expected to be approximately one trillion and 115 billion riyals, according to Saudi government data. The budget for this year was approved by the government, which anticipated a deficit of 79 billion riyals ($21.07 billion). The Kingdom anticipates total revenues of one trillion and 172 billion riyals, and total expenditures of one trillion and 251 billion riyals ($333.5 billion) for the year. The budget deficit for 2023 is projected to be 82 billion Saudi riyals.
After a pitiful growth of just 0.03% over the past year, the Ministry of Finance had projected real GDP growth of 4.4% in 2024.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi citizen’s share of debts and taxes has increased since the introduction of the Crown Prince’s Vision 2030, compared to his share of job opportunities and better living conditions.
The Crown Prince also broke all of his promises, which included expanding the economy, bringing in foreign investment, creating jobs, moving projects forward, and lowering public debt. As a result, after seven hard years of low income and achievements that made life difficult, the citizen was shocked to learn that after significant tax increases in 2023—some of which reached 82% annually—the total amount of taxes collected until September of that year was 277.9 billion riyals, or one-third of total revenues.
Will MBS stop the collapse process or be satisfied with the damage done to the kingdom?
